Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

We have another guest blogger for you today and she happens to be not only one of our favorite people on the planet, she’s also one of the funniest, smartest and most talented yoga teachers we know. Meet Gina Caputo.

Do you know that peaceful feeling you get from being around someone who is calm and isn’t bothered by a thing? Who doesn’t sweat the small stuff? I love me some drama-free people. People who don’t take themselves too seriously, stay calm, don’t freak out, who speak less, reflect more, and use some good ol’ common sense. If you know what I’m taking about, You have experienced the drama free-zone.

Last week, we discussed the Winter Solstice and how when we align with nature, we settle into a rhythm that honors our own inner being. It’s easy to get off balance this time of year when the world seems focused on the holidays, and your usual schedule flies out the window. How we can maintain our self-practice or Sadhana!

Overbooking my schedule since returning to California has left me tired and overwhelmed. I can never turn down an opportunity, so now I never stop-- I leave the house at 8am and come back at 10pm. What have I done to myself?! It’s in these moments that I appeal to my yoga values. Yoga, in its non dogmatic form, is the only philosophy whose moral codes I was able to identify with and slowly make my own.

I was recently hanging out with some old friends and mentioned that I’m living a nearly refined-sugar free life. (I say nearly because I believe in balance and, on occasion, sharing a chocolate croissant with my family is worth it.) They gasped. While I’ve always attempted a clean diet, it was shocking for them to imagine their former fro-yo lovin’ friend off of sugar. I chalk it up to one of the things that a breast cancer diagnosis did for me – scared me straight off the sugar crack.

Here’s why I chose yoga as a way of life. I want you to know my story, not because it has any particular significance to your own trajectory on this path called yoga, but because I want you to know that you’re not alone in feeling like you’re not really sure why you’re practicing yoga. I’ve already shared a lot of my story on this blog, in my about section, and sometimes in my classes, but what I’m about to share with you here is a little more personal. My own personal reasons for why I continue to choose yoga as a way of life.